Creative Nursing

Creative Nursing 2026 explores the multifaceted relationship between nursing and sociology, a field rich with opportunities for critical analysis and theoretical development. Our first two issues represent distinct yet interconnected approaches that illuminate the social dimensions of health, illness, and health-care delivery. In 16 articles by 85 authors from 19 countries, this second issue, Sociology in Nursing, applies sociological insights to understand health disparities, determinants of health, the patient and family experience, and the social context of health behaviors. It emphasizes how sociological understanding can inform and improve nursing practice, education, and research.

This paper introduces the Societal Health & Nursing Framework as a sociologically informed approach that expands nursing's focus from individual patients and families to the broader societal conditions influencing health and illness. Grounded in sociology, public health ethics, social determinants of health, intersectionality, and socioecological models, the framework offers nurses a shared language and structure to address upstream drivers of health inequities. Nursing practice is increasingly shaped by social, political, and economic forces that extend beyond individual clinical encounters. Although the International Council of Nurses Code of Ethics affirms nurses’ responsibility to promote human rights, health equity, and social justice, these ethical commitments are not consistently translated into everyday practice or education. By situating health within cultural and structural contexts, the Societal Health & Nursing Framework provides a unified vocabulary and conceptual foundation to promote holistic, culturally responsive care and strengthens nursing's role in advocacy, policy engagement, and global citizenship. Integrating this framework into nursing education and practice reinforces nursing's social mandate to advance health equity and societal well-being.

Nursing as a profession and nurses as individual practitioners need to balance their professional obligations and values alongside societal expectations. Ideally, these would be in alignment, creating a context that supports the work of the nurse and the development of the professional role. Increasingly, shifting aspects have become apparent in both the self-image and public image of nurses and the nursing profession. Expectations, understanding, and beliefs about what it means to be a nurse continue to evolve, and the capacity to enact core values associated with nursing has come under pressure. The professional underpinnings, traditional values, and behaviors of nurses are impacted by changing social, political, and economic circumstances. Global shifts in health-care capacity, treatment policies, and nursing scopes of practice have been compounded by the lasting impact of pandemics, conflict, and polarizing political movements. Nurses in many countries are working in situations of reduced resources and higher expectations, and facing the impact of an aging workforce and patient populations. A growing focus on political activism and the need to speak out on behalf of patients has become a concern in the face of increasingly nationalist ideologies. Nurses are challenged by ethical, legal, and clinical risks in their practice, and this, in turn, is creating tension in the way that nursing is represented.

Emotional competence, the ability to manage interpersonal relationships through understanding one's and others’ emotions, encompasses two dimensions: cognitive and behavioral. In nursing practice, the combination of these dimensions allows for better performance in highly complex clinical situations. Nursing education does not always emphasize these competences. This pilot study explored the potential of an escape room, a Serious Games (SGs) prototype with virtual reality (VR), as a pedagogical strategy for eliciting emotions in a safe learning environment. Participants’ immersion in the game provided an opportunity to identify, manage, and process emotions. Data were gathered by a questionnaire and by observation of performance. The findings revealed that participants felt various emotions (n = 51) while playing the game. The least frequent reported emotions were hope, shame, and contempt. Admiration, pride, satisfaction, and fear were the most frequently reported emotions. These findings suggest that using a SGs prototype with VR as a pedagogical tool holds significant potential in emotion elicitation in a safe learning environment, implying its value as a construct of emotional competence. Further research to verify educational value is recommended.

School nurses play a crucial role in promoting health and well-being within school communities. Their responsibilities include direct patient care, care management, health teaching, disease prevention, and mental health treatment. As the point of entry into the health-care system for children and families, school nurses address the full spectrum of health needs, and their roles are critical to student success. To increase exposure to school nursing and provide hands-on experience for nursing students, a deliberate internship was instituted for the 2021–2022 academic year. A qualitative evaluation of the intern's narratives examined the impact of the program, and the findings illustrated the power of experiential learning to foster interns’ knowledge of school nursing. The 2024 School Nursing Practice Framework led interns in direct care, chronic disease management, and health promotion. These experiences reinforced the role of school nurses in facilitating public health and student well-being. This project underscores the importance of integrating school nursing internships into nursing education to expand the nursing workforce and prepare graduates for comprehensive health care. Policymakers must invest in school nurse workforce development, fund school health programs, and offer incentives for careers in school nursing. Strengthening these efforts establishes health equity and enhances student success, demonstrating the value of community-based, practice-informed nursing education.

Background: University education has shifted from being professor-centered to student-centered, through the use of new methodological strategies, one of which is Photovoice, which can be especially useful for nursing students. Aims: Review the current evidence on the use of Photovoice as a teaching method for nursing students. Methods: A scoping review of articles published in peer-reviewed journals about use of Photovoice as an educational strategy was conducted using the databases PubMed, Scopus, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, PsycINFO, and Web of Science, with no restrictions on language or date of publication. From a total of 343 articles found in the search process, 18 were included for final analysis. Conclusion: Photovoice can be a valuable educational strategy for nurse students, particularly when a holistic student-centered approach that can elicit not only knowledge but also perceptions, attitudes, empathy, community sense, and skills is desired.

Background: Organ and tissue Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD) is increasingly practiced in most health systems. The attitudes of the health-care workforce who participate in DCD remain understudied. This research study reports the attitudes of ICU nurses toward the process of organ and tissue procurement from DCD donors. Design and Methods: Drawing upon the principles of interpretative phenomenology, this qualitative study involved eight ICU nurses with direct experience of DCD donor care. Interviews were conducted between 2016 and 2023. Data interpretation used the Meaningful, Interpretative, Relational, Authentic, Contextualized, Linked, Emic (MIRACLE) framework, providing deeper insight into nurses’ experiences and enabling thick description. Results: The data were systematically collected and analyzed through a repeated cyclical process involving open and axial coding. The analysis of the collected data revealed four themes: (1) Nurses’ Attitudes toward Transplantation, (2) Procedure for Organ and Tissue Procurement from DCD Donors, (3) Ethical Aspects of the DCD Process, and (4) Family and Lay Public Perspectives. Nurses viewed DCD positively but noted limited experience. Terminal extubation emerged as the most ethically and emotionally sensitive phase. Participants reported communication challenges with families, especially when patients’ wishes were unknown, and highlighted a gap in the public's awareness of the legal and procedural aspects of the DCD process. Conclusion: Culturally and spiritually sensitive communication, institutional support, and ethically grounded training are key to improving DCD implementation. Enhancing education for both nurses and the public is essential in view of the role that ICU nurses play in DCD processes.

This pilot study explored how adult day centers can serve as transformative clinical learning environments for nursing students to learn dementia care. Fourteen students in an accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program participated in two clinical experiences at community-based memory care centers and then submitted reflective journals. Guided by Mezirow's Transformative Learning Theory, analysis revealed that students reported finding the experiences meaningful, challenging their prior assumptions about dementia, and enhancing their empathy for both individuals with dementia and their caregivers. Themes identified were Positivity, Appreciation for Caregivers, Communication Skill Development, and Understanding the Stages of Dementia. By observing the lived experience of people with dementia in a relaxed, community setting, student feedback challenged the prevailing clinical norms that privilege acute care and simulation. The findings suggest that adult day centers can be powerful sites for deep learning in nursing education.

This commentary critiques the growing use of the term “equity-deserving” in health equity literature, academic institutions, and policy research. The term was originally intended to frame equity as a right rather than a request. However, we argue that “equity-deserving” is a conceptually flawed term that reinforces a charity-based model of social justice by positioning institutions as benevolent givers and marginalized groups as passive receivers. This, in turn, results in obscuring the structural causes of inequality, risking the creation of meritocratic gatekeeping in clinical care and jeopardizing the validity of health equity research through the use of monolithic, performative labels.

Background: Antenatal depression is one of the most common pregnancy complications that might influence perinatal outcomes. Current studies in Jordan focus on the prevalence of and predictive factors for antenatal depression. There is a gap in understanding its impact on labor, delivery, and neonatal health indicators. Purpose: To compare perinatal outcomes between two groups of pregnant women in Jordan, one group whose members have been diagnosed with antenatal depression and one group whose members did not have that diagnosis. Method: A cross-sectional descriptive comparative design was used to collect data from pregnant women attending the obstetric and gynecologic department and clinics at a medical center in Amman, Jordan. Consecutive sampling was used to recruit a total of 785 participants. Results: About 15% (n = 121) of the women screened positive for antenatal depression, defined as an Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) score of 13 or higher. The results indicated that women with antenatal depression had a significantly longer first stage of labor than women who did not have depression. The neonates of women without depression had significantly higher Apgar scores at 1 and 5 min than those of women with antenatal depression symptoms. Conclusion: This study highlights the significant impact of antenatal depression on labor duration and neonatal outcomes among Jordanian women. Implications: Policymakers in health-care systems can use these results to prioritize mental health screening as a component of routine care of obstetric and gynecologic health-care models.

Creative Nursing Volume 32 Issue introduced a new series on Critical Approaches for Nursing Research, with the intention of helping nurse researchers design and conduct research inquiries that are better suited for promoting health equity and dismantling structural inequalities. Critical research, which questions claims of objectivity and exposes the sociohistorical nature of knowledge, remains underutilized in nursing. This second editorial in the series offers an overview of critical qualitative research, its underlying principles, and practical considerations. The next editorials in this series will focus on critical mixed methods research and queer methods.